Graham v. Warden

Per Curiam. This is an application for leave to appeal from a denial of relief under the Uniform Post Conviction Procedure Act by order of March 17, 1967 of the Circuit Court for Wicomico County, Judge William W. Travers, presiding. The applicant was convicted by a jury in Wicomico County of murder in the first degree without capital punishment and on September 25, 1964 was sentenced to life imprisonment. The ⁴²³ judgment was affirmed by the Court of Appeals on July 28, 1965.

Graham v. State, 239 Md. 521 . In his petition for relief the applicant alleged, among other allegations, that the members of the grand jury which indicted him and the petit jury which tried him were unconstitutionally required to take an oath that they believed in God. In Schowgurow v. State, 240 Md. 121, 131 , the Court of Appeals said: “Under the decision of the Supreme Court in Torcaso [Torcaso v. Watkins, 367 U. S. 488 (1961)], we are constrained to hold that the provisions of the Maryland Constitution requiring demonstration of belief in God as a qualification for service as a grand or petit juror are in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment, and that any requirement of an oath as to such belief, or inquiry of prospective jurors, oral or written, as to whether they believe in a Supreme Being, is unconstitutional.” It further held that “The resulting danger of abuse, under the decisions of the Supreme Court, at the least, puts the burden upon the State to show that there was no exclusion or discrimination.” The legal